{"id":12410,"date":"2025-08-21T10:07:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T02:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12410"},"modified":"2025-08-21T10:07:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T02:07:33","slug":"trumps-remarkable-statement-against-states-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=12410","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s remarkable statement against states\u2019 rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement Monday that he will sign an executive order aimed at getting rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines seems unlikely to amount to much. He doesn\u2019t appear to have any such authority, and legal challenges would surely follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was instructive in one way: It made clear the president elected to lead the party of states\u2019 rights has very little regard for states\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, he almost seems to disdain them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s difficult to read his comments any other way, especially as he has spent much of his second term attempting to chip away at states\u2019 rights \u2014 or at least, the ones he doesn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While selling his new pitch to get rid of mail-in voting and voting machines, Trump included this remarkable pair of sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRemember, the States are merely an \u2018agent\u2019 for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes,\u201d the president wrote on Truth Social. \u201cThey must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has described the states as \u201cagents\u201d of the federal government before in this context, but without casting them as subservient to him personally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a rather novel take on the Constitution, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As CNN\u2019s Daniel Dale notes, the Constitution says the \u201cTimes, Places and Manner of holding Elections \u2026 shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.\u201d Congress has a role, in that the Constitution says it can \u201cmake or alter such Regulations.\u201d But there is no role for the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Trump isn\u2019t saying that Congress should outlaw mail-in voting or voting machines, mind you. Instead, he\u2019s saying the states \u201cmust\u201d get rid of them because he tells them to \u2014 apparently because he was elected president and because he has determined it\u2019s \u201cFOR THE GOOD OF THE COUNTRY.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is merely the latest in a long line of drastic Trump claims to power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He often claimed during his first term that the Constitution gave him absolute power. Even when out of office, he floated terminating portions of the Constitution, while repeating his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. And earlier this year, he posted a quote often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte suggesting his actions couldn\u2019t be illegal as long as he was acting to \u201csave\u201d the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But just as striking as Trump\u2019s claim to power on Monday was his explicit statement that states are merely his \u201cagents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is very difficult to square with decades of conservative orthodoxy, which holds that the federal government should be small and that states should lead the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Trump was first elected in 2016, the Republican Party platform devoted an entire section to its apparent devotion to states\u2019 rights. It said the federal government should not have any powers beyond those specifically enumerated in the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery violation of state sovereignty by federal officials is not merely a transgression of one unit of government against another; it is an assault on the liberties of individual Americans,\u201d the platform said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform also decried the \u201cbullying of state and local governments,\u201d apparently a reference to the Obama administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were those state and local governments being bullied over? According to the platform, it was on \u201cmatters ranging from voter identification (ID) laws to immigration\u201d and on \u201chealthcare programs,\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has now taken constitutionally dicey executive actions that sought to undercut states\u2019 authority in all three of those areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On voter ID, he signed an executive order seeking to boost proof of citizenship requirements for registering to vote. (A judge later blocked this.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On immigration, he has sought to target state and local governments\u2019 \u201csanctuary\u201d policies. (A judge recently dismissed the administration\u2019s lawsuit in Chicago over this.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On health care, Trump\u2019s new domestic agenda law creates, for the first time, federal \u201cwork requirements\u201d for Medicaid that the states administering it must abide by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those aren\u2019t the only areas in which he\u2019s sought to impose the federal government on the states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he dispatched troops to Los Angeles in June amid protests over his immigration crackdown, he became the first president in 60 years to do so without the consent of the governor. (California has sued over this.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month, he became the first president to federalize the police in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to prevent states from enforcing their own climate laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sought to end New York City\u2019s congestion pricing by withholding funding. (A judge later blocked this.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has repeatedly sought to control how California uses its water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he has repeatedly threatened to withhold federal funding from states and cities if they don\u2019t abide by more conservative social policies on issues such as transgender rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But few of these efforts loom as large as Trump\u2019s growing attempts to exert himself over the American elections system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has not only sought to expand citizenship requirements and talked about nixing mail-in voting and voting machines; as CNN\u2019s Fredreka Schouten wrote earlier this month, his administration and its allies have taken a series of steps to apply pressure on the elections system \u2014 often in line with Trump\u2019s false claims of widespread voter fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has raised fears among Democrats and watchdogs about a concerted effort to reshape the elections system in a way that benefits Trump and his party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It remains to be seen how much his new executive order might ultimately play into that, given it\u2019s not clear how such a thing could pass legal muster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is also an area that interests Trump greatly, owing to his years of voter fraud conspiracy theories. And it\u2019s difficult to see him standing back, no matter what the Constitution says about his powers (or lack thereof).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if nothing else, Trump has finally said how he really feels about the concept of states\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement Monday that he will sign an executive order aimed at getting rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines seems unlikely to amount to much. He doesn\u2019t appear to have any such authority, and legal challenges would surely follow. 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